"I like the colours and stickers – it feels original to me. The performance was nice too, with a good high middle."
RRP: £499.99, Edges: 38mm, Weight: 2lb 8oz
There were plaudits aplenty for the lovely, sleek shape of this offering from DKP.
DKP are a Birmingham-based manufacturer who makes their own range of bats, alongside selling other more recognised marques.
DKP made a stunning debut in The Cricketer’s bat-testing in 2024, when the Icon came out top of our testing process, and the Core has backed up that performance pretty well.
The beautiful stickers and plentiful graining earned rave reviews from our testers.
England opener Bryony Smith said: "Although I hadn’t heard of DKP before, this bat has a really nice lightweight pick-up, nice grains and overall a nice-looking bat that performed well."
One of the school testers captured the overall feeling: "I like the colours and stickers – it feels original to me. The performance was nice too, with a good high middle."
Our other pro, the former Ashes opener Mark Stoneman, was especially impressed: "It’s a meaty bat in the middle, with a good sweet spot. It has a great shape, so that it feels like an extension of your arms."
DKP is not widely used in the professional game yet – though it is in the bag of Nottinghamshire’s new signing Conor McKerr. And judging by this outcome, he won’t be the last.
Initial impression: 7.6
Build quality: 7.1
Pick-up/feel: 7.7
Performance: 7.3
OVERALL SCORE: 7.4
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